When you feel tense or anxious,
Stop for a moment.
Take a moment to decentralize and recover yourself.
Start closing your eyes gently and take a position that is quite comfortable,
With both feet on the floor.
Explore your feelings in your body and try to notice if tensions are emerging.
Maybe you can feel tensions at head level or some compressions at neck and shoulders.
Maybe at the level of the throat,
Stomach or in the arms.
What's important now is not why you are feeling these feelings or try to drive them away or control them,
But just look at them with curiosity.
So go in search of what it stands right now in your body.
Also try to observe every impulse you have to escape these feelings of anxiety or irritation.
For example the urgency to get up and stop listening or to change position or to try to drive away these feelings or control them.
And if you notice them,
It's normal.
We often think that the feelings of anxiety,
Tension,
Agitation are too unpleasant or unbearable if you do not actively do something to stop them.
In reality all sensations and emotions as well as anxiety come and go like the waves of the sea.
So try to stay with what's happening right now in your body rather than chase it down or try to control it.
In the meantime you may notice that thoughts arise in your mind,
Maybe concerns about your anxiety or about the reason for your anxiety.
But this is not the time to pay attention to these things.
So try to gently bring your attention back to your body and sensations,
Letting your thoughts go to the background.
Observe how your breath is now without trying to change it.
Observe his speed,
His pace,
His regular or not.
Observe its intensity and depth.
Is it superficial or deep?
Now try to increase the space between breath slightly and effortlessly.
Inhale and keep the air alil and then let the air out all the way and wait a while before starting again with the inhale.
Inhale and exhale,
Increasing the distance between one another without straining but gently and slowly.
And whenever you are distracted by anxious thoughts,
Try to return with attention to the spaces of your breath.
If it's ok for you,
Now put your hands on your chest at the level of the heart where you are most comfortable.
So you can notice that you don't need your chest to get up a lot.
You can also leave it down when you are breathing and you can try to send the air down to your belly.
Try to imagine that your belly is a balloon and every time you let air in,
Try to get it to your belly gently and effortlessly.
The belly swells like a balloon,
Then when it reaches its maximum capacity,
It empties itself gently,
Letting the air out.
This is the abdominal breathing,
The one that allows the right exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide and brings your breathing and your heartbeat to normal level.
Your body also calms and relaxes.
So now try again,
Starting to empty the belly from the air and then inhale,
Let the air in the belly,
Hold for a moment and then gently exhale completely.
Wait and then breathe again,
Hold your belly full and then slowly empty it completely.
Then wait and inhale again at your own pace.
Gone with your pace.
Find your natural pace,
Your natural new pace of breath.
And now go back to notice your body sensations.
Try to observe if they are different from the beginning of the practice or if you are feeling the same.
But we are not trying to feel anything different or doing anything different from what you are doing right now,
But only to breathe and stay a moment here with these sensations as they are.
As you are breathing,
Try to center yourself and notice the feeling of support with the surfaces you are in contact with.
Maybe the bed,
The sofa,
Or the chair or the floor under your feet.
Please try to focus on exactly where you meet these surfaces while you keep breathing.
There is nothing else you need to do right now.
Just stay and breathe in the presence of these feelings.
As long as you resist to anxiety,
It will continue to increase.
Instead,
If you abandon the struggle and simply remain to breathe and feel anchor to the ground,
Then you could slowly recover,
Center yourself and feel calmer.
But only if you let go of your resistance to anxiety and its feelings.
And only if you let go of your search for reasons,
Strategies to let it pass or to solve your problems.
Just stay in here and now breathing.
You can perceive the noises you can hear around you and observe everything that puts you in touch with the present moment.
This is the way to coping with anxiety.
Stay in contact with the here and now.
Don't try to change anything or control anything.
Just stay here and now.
And notice if your breath now is different from the beginning.
If it's not,
You can keep on breathing with space between inhale and exhale.
And if you feel ready to go back to what you were doing before,
You can resume moving gently and slowly.
Softly open your eyes and you know that at any moment you can return to observe your breath and feelings of support to recover yourself and calm your anxiety.
Despite the worries you may have.
Thank you for listening to this recording of Mindful Act.
